FireWall: The First Line of Defense

rarely is it actually possible to calculate a vision’s financial value. In 1993, when the ‘www’ network was only two years old, three young Israelis founded a company that identified the future global need for information security. The company’s name was Check Point and its stocks were issued for trade on the NASDAQ in 1996 at the price of 2.30 USD per share, representing a total estimated value of 450 million dollars. As of today, the stock price stands at approximately 103 dollars and the company’s value has soared to an estimated 17 billion dollars.
The product that positioned Check Point at the forefront of the world information security market was the FireWall software (FireWall-1). The three young computer professionals – Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer – created a solution that was aimed at protecting any computer or network of computers connected to the internet from infiltration by hostile external causes such as viruses and hackers. The software’s name is taken from the term given to a fire-proof obstacle protecting a building.
Just as the three predicted, the FireWall became a base product for internet users everywhere – private individuals, corporations and organizations – and the company’s security solutions became a permanent, vital and necessary standard. 25 years after its groundbreaking invention, Check Point is considered the world’s leading manufacturer of cyber security products. From its headquarters in Tel Aviv, the company’s management, led by CEO Shwed, takes pride in consistently charting innovative new ways through a field that never ceases to change.
Check Point’s products are sold in approximately 90 countries and protect the information of more than 100 thousand organizations around the world, from factories to space stations.
The company’s products supply protection against all the existing types of threats in a range of environments: physical and virtual networks, cloud and mobile surroundings, critical infrastructures and the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT).
Check Point employs more than 4600 workers in 63 countries. Approximately 3000 of them are developers and technical experts in the information security field, striving daily to find advanced solutions for the most sophisticated cyber threats imaginable.